California approved a plan Friday to make flag football a girls’ high school sport amid the game’s growing popularity and a push to get more female athletes on the field.
The move by the California Interscholastic Federation — the statewide body that governs high school athletics — made flag football the official sport for girls in the nation’s most populous state for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. The plan was unanimously approved by the organization’s federation board in Long Beach, said Rebecca Brutlag, an agency spokeswoman.
Paula Hart Rodas, president-elect of the CIF Southern Section’s board, said the goal is to get more girls involved in high school sports and tap into the widespread love of football by many who are loath to play tackle. Southern California schools from Long Beach to Corona hope to start teams in the fall and the agreement allows districts to add the sport to their budgets, Hart Rodas said.
“You can love the game of football and hate being tackled but still want to be in it,” Hart Rodas said. “Flag now aims directly to get more girls involved in athletics by adding a different sport that we know girls across the country, but refuse to play for various reasons.”
The move adds California to a growing list of states that include girls’ flag football in their high school athletic programs, such as Alabama and Nevada. The New York state high school athletic association took a similar step this week and hopes to host the first state championship for girls flag football in the spring of 2024.
The vote in California comes amid growing interest in flag football among younger players in recreational leagues and support from the NFL and teams such as the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, which have piloted high school leagues for kids. a woman in Southern California.
Many schools have signed up to participate in the pilot and those chosen to do so – and the young players who are eager to play in it – have been widely seen as pioneers in the sport.
Paul Schmidt said being part of the beginning has been exciting for his 14-year-old daughter, who had never played flag football before trying out for the team at Redondo Union High School, one of the schools participating in the league. Making sports official should make it easier to secure field time, he said, and give a boost to the tight-knit team of girls who have been tied around starting something new.
“He loves, loves. It’s fun to be in a new sport,” he said.
Rising interest in flag football – in which no one will be tackled and play ends when opposing players pull the flag from the belt around the waist of the ball-carrier – comes amid concern about the risk of concussions and other injuries from intercepting football.
In the decade to 2018-19, the number of girls playing soccer in U.S. high schools doubled to 11,000, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Without CIF approval, California high schools can organize flag football clubs. But coaches say official interscholastic competition will prompt more schools to start teams and develop a pipeline of players.
Troy Vincent Sr., the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, wrote in the Sacramento Bee that times have changed since professional football, which at the time was “widely viewed as a man’s game.” He said high school players are likely to play in college and beyond because universities are also expanding the sport.
Vincent also pushed for flag football to be added to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“It’s not just a backyard sport for girls to play pickup at family holiday gatherings,” he said.
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